Team Makita Suzuki Racing's Ivan Tedesco carded one of his best finishes of the 2007 AMA Toyota Motocross Championship season on Sunday afternoon by picking up sixth-place overall at Pennsylvania's Steel City Raceway.
Tedesco rode his Makita Suzuki RM-Z450 to sixth place in the first 30-minute moto and to fifth place in the second moto.
Makita Suzuki team mate Ricky Carmichael did not race at Steel City because he is running an abbreviated race schedule for 2007.
Ivan Tedesco "It was a little bit muddy this weekend, which isn't my favourite condition. In the first moto I didn't get the greatest start but I made some passes and got myself into sixth place. I pretty much rode by myself in that moto, though at the end I was catching up to Andrew Short but couldn't quite get him. By the second moto, the track was pretty good and I got a little bit better start and made my passes a little bit quicker. It was kind of the same as in the first moto - I rode by myself for a while and started to catch Short but couldn't quite get him. But I rode a lot better in the second moto and I felt like my pace was right there with the leaders. I just need to get a little bit better start to get up there and race with them. We made some tyre changes before the second moto and I was way more comfortable, I felt like I could charge a lot harder and the Makita Suzuki RM-Z450 was really good."
In the Motocross Lites class, Team Makita Suzuki Racing's Nico Izzi followed up last week's 10th-place Pro debut with an even more impressive performance. The 17-year-old rider raced his Makita Suzuki RM-Z250 to two seventh-place moto finishes for a fifth place overall result.
Makita Suzuki team mate Ryan Dungey broke his collarbone during Saturday practice and did not race. More information on Dungey will be forthcoming as soon as it is available.
Nico Izzi"Practice was all right, but it was a mud-fest so I just wanted to go out there and put in a pretty good time and make sure I was somewhere in the top 10. I was 15th and I would have liked to be a little bit better but I knew the track would come around. My starts have been horrible and in the first moto I came out around 20th and worked my way to fifth but got passed and finished seventh. So I was really happy with that. My goal was to come here and get top-eight and in the second moto, I got a little bit better start and got seventh again for fifth overall. So I'm super-pumped. The Makita Suzuki RM-Z250 is awesome and I can't say enough about the team. I'm looking forward to a lot of years with them."
Team Makita Suzuki Racing will race next at Freestone County Raceway in Wortham, Texas on September 1-2.
AMA Toyota Motocross Top 10 Finishers- Grant Langston (Yamaha)
- Mike Alessi (KTM)
- Kevin Windham (Honda)
- Andrew Short (Honda)
- Tim Ferry (Kawasaki)
- Ivan Tedesco (Makita Suzuki)
- Gavin Gracyk (Honda)
- Michael Byrne (Rockstar Suzuki)
- Yoshitaka Atsuta (Honda)
- Josh Summey (Honda)
AMA Toyota Motocross Lites Top 10 Finishers- Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki)
- Ben Townley (Kawasaki)
- Brett Metcalfe (Kawasaki)
- Austin Stroupe (Kawasaki)
- Nico Izzi (Makita Suzuki)
- Josh Grant (Honda)
- Martin Davalos (KTM)
- Broc Hepler (Yamaha)
- Jake Weimer (Honda)
- Trey Canard (Honda)
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